5-0!!!

On Saturday we played another home game in front of another large crowd. This week is was only about 1000 people compared to the 1100 that we had out the week before. We thought that because there was so many people at the game we should play to 5 tonight so that they could get their money’s worth (keep in mind our games are free). Konstanz was sitting at third place in the league and looked more athletic and skilled than any of the other teams we had played so far. I was a little more nervous for the game than normal because our starting right side had a sprained ankle forcing her out of the line up, and my roommates Michele and Jana were both either sick or injured. I wasn’t sure if the girls would be able to make it through a whole game but we only play once a weekend so I had faith that they would be able to suck it up for the match.

The game started off rather slow for us. We shanked the first pass of the game but were still able to keep the play going but ended up losing the point. I was very nervous for how the rest of the match was going to go....but we ended up pulling off the first set victory winning 25-18.



We managed to win game two 25-20 and then lose games three (17-25) and four (23-25). We shouldn’t have lost them but we let our emotions get the best of us. We were struggling with passing and a few of the girls on the team were getting very nervous and uptight. I knew that we were going to be okay we just needed to calm down and relax. We were doing a pretty good job of attempting to get on track but we were still unable to pull out a win in the 4th set forcing us into our first 5 set match of the year!! Compounding the emotional rollercoaster our team was on was the refereeing. This may have been the worst officiated game I have ever been involved in. The ref was calling balls out that were in and in that were out. They missed ball handling, net calls, antenna calls and blatant touches. The missed touches were the hardest ones to swallow because both Michele and I had one each at crucial points in the game. They were also both identical.....we hit the ball off the middle blockers hands and it sailed up into the air 2-3 feet higher than when we hit it and then out of bounds. How they missed that was beyond me, but they did! The only positive about the poor refereeing was that it was bad for both sides.

After losing set 4 we needed to refocus and forget the previous errors if we were going to be the first team to 15 and win. We started the set off well going up 4-0! That was great because we had the side out advantage and all we had to do was trade side outs for the rest of the game. We stayed up when we changed sides at 8 and then were up 13-10 looking to close the match out. We let them get to 13-12 where we had a huge side out to go up 14-12. Serving with a chance to win the match Konstanz came out with a huge kill. We would have to finish the game with a side out.....which is exactly what we did, off a missed serve. We took the 5th set 15-13 and are still undefeated for the year at 5-0!

Victory!!

After each game the club holds a small press conference with the coaches of both teams and a player from each team. Surprise, Surprise it was me who got chosen to be involved; time to show off my German that I had learnt so far......luckily they said I could speak in English! I don’t think they would have appreciated me asking how they were, (Wie geht’s?) and where they were from (Woher kommst du?). It was definitely interesting standing there and not understanding a word anyone was saying but that’s kind of how it has been the entire time that I’ve been here.

I may look disinterred but I am actually trying to translate every word they are saying.....it was very difficult.

Needless to say it was a good thing we won again as the managers and sponsors are once again happy. Also, hopefully we left the fans with something to remember us by because our next home game isn’t until the 20th of December.